The post The Sieve & The Scribe: Ep. 5 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The post Gallery: U.S. vs. Canada appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

In leading the St. Cloud State women’s hockey team to its highest win total in six seasons last year, goaltending was the least of coach Eric Rud’s concerns. With senior Katie Fitzgerald gobbling up nearly all of the available crease time, all Rud had to do in his second year behind the SCSU bench was send her out there and watch her backstop 12 of the Huskies’ 13 wins.

But with Fitzgerald’s departure and subsequent signing of a pro contract with the NWHL’s New York Riveters, Rud spent the summer thinking a lot about his goaltending and how he was going to fill over 2000 minutes between the pipes.

“You don’t know what to expect when you have three goalies that, basically, you know, one that’s never played hockey in the United States at all and the other two hadn’t played any meaningful minutes in two years,” Rud said.

The three goalies on Rud’s 2016-17 roster entered the season having combined to play the equivalent of just over eight full collegiate games since 2012, with only sophomore Taylor Crosby’s 75 minutes coming in a Huskies sweater. Senior transfer student, and Edina native, Madeline Dahl’s experience came in two seasons with Union College prior to sitting out last season.

That leaves freshman Janine Alder.

All the 21-year-old Zürich, Switzerland native has done is rack up two WCHA Rookie of the Week honors in a three week span in her first month as a Husky. She stopped 51 of 52 shots in an Oct. 7-8 split with North Dakota and followed that up two weeks later saving 56 of 58 shots in a sweep of Minnesota State.

Those performances, combined with a pair of solid early-season Taylor Crosby starts, have Rud breathing a little easier heading into the season’s second month.

“I think four years of this kind of hockey prepared me the best for being here and being ready.” – Janine Alder

“So all summer … you’re excited to see who’s gonna take the ball and run with it,” Rud said. “And, so far, before Taylor got hurt she played a couple real nice games and Janine’s been very good back there.”

Alder had never played hockey in the United States, much less NCAA Division I women’s hockey. In fact, other than international play, including winning an Olympic bronze medal in Sochi, Russia as a member of the Swiss team in 2014, her resume included very little women’s hockey, relatively speaking.

Alder honed her skills playing against men in suiting up for EHC Winterthur of the Swiss National Junior Elite B league, the second highest junior hockey league for men in Switzerland. That experience left her feeling well prepared for the rigors of WCHA women’s hockey.

“It was very competitive and I really loved playing there because it’s such a fast game and hard shots and everything,” Alder said. “I think four years of this kind of hockey prepared me the best for being here and being ready.”

Huskies assistant coach Steve MacDonald got his first look at Alder in the Czech Republic at the 2012 IIHF World Women’s U18 Championship when he was an assistant to Shannon Miller at Minnesota-Duluth. MacDonald monitored her progress from afar and the pair kept in touch over the years primarily via Skype.  

When he arrived in St. Cloud MacDonald recommended her to Rud whose only exposure to Alder prior to her setting foot on campus was on video.

Photo By Maddie MacFarlane

“There wasn’t a lot of video on her against a lot of girls competition so the video we got was of a men’s league hockey in Switzerland,” Rud said. “The one thing we could see on the tape was her footwork. Her skating was excellent and it certainly gives her a chance to be square to the puck all the time even at her size.”

According to Alder, by the time the offer came she required little convincing.

“[MacDonald] just asked me if I want to join and I was like, ‘Yeah, St. Cloud would be the perfect team.’”

“As a goalie, you don’t want to be on a team where you don’t get any shots,” Alder added. “Of course, everyone wants to win championships but I want to play hockey, that’s my biggest love, and I put my heart on the ice every time.”

Some might suggest making the transition from men’s hockey to women’s hockey should make the move easier for someone like Alder but both she and her coach say otherwise.

“In reality, sometimes it’s tough, that transition year, whether it’s the girls doing it from bantam hockey to high school hockey or this level,” Rud said. “The plays develop a little slower, it’s not coming quite as fast, so I think there is a development curve but she seemed to get through it pretty quick and has looked very good in there.”

“The biggest adjustment was from men’s hockey adjusting to women’s hockey because it’s so different,” Alder said after stopping 33 of 38 shots in her first start against defending NCAA champion Minnesota, a 5-2 loss on Oct. 27. “Today it was very close to men’s hockey so it was kind of like my game, my style of game, and I really enjoyed playing it.”

Off the ice, although she speaks five languages, Alder said it hasn’t always been easy dealing with a bit of a language barrier.

“I speak German and adjusting with the language was really tiring in the beginning,” Alder said. “Just like translating everything and getting along with school. But I think I’m settled right now.”

With tournament Most Valuable player and Best Goaltender, Florence Schelling, ahead of her on the depth chart Alder did not play for Switzerland at the 2014 Sochi Games. But you wouldn’t know it by the way she lights up when talking about living her biggest dream as an athlete.

“I wasn’t playing but my experience there was just huge,” Alder said. “Meeting all these big players and big sports people was amazing. Hopefully, I’ll experience it once more.”

One person she met in Sochi who stood out from the others in Alder’s wide eyes was someone she met in line at the Olympic Village cafeteria, of all places, as they were each going through the buffet line.

“I met Henrik Lundqvist, the Swedish goalie, and I think he was one of the nicest guys there and just so friendly and just so down to earth,” Alder said of the long-time New York Rangers goaltender. “He spoke to me like if he was like a normal person.”

One weekend Alder has circled on her calendar is Dec 2-3, when Olympic teammate, Lara Stalder, and her Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs travel to St. Cloud for a set of games. Both players expressed excitement the potential first meeting between the WCHA’s lone Swiss players.

“I’m very looking forward to facing her because she had some very good games recently and she will be on the top of her career I think,” Alder said. “She will be going to the NWHL next year so she’s one of the top players. I’m really close to her so I’ll be looking forward to this, it will be fun.”

“It’s exciting because because everyone kind of like knows players on other teams from high school and now I finally know someone from Switzerland to play against,” said Stalder, a standout senior forward for the Bulldogs and Lucerne, Switzerland native.

“I can’t wait to play against her and maybe put some goals behind her,” added Stalder with a chuckle.

Historically, St. Cloud State has struggled to put pucks in the net. While that could eventually change under Rud’s leadership, keeping them out of their own goal will, in the meantime, remain that much more critical to any success the Huskies have. Goaltending, of course, will continue to play a huge role in that and Alder looks forward to the challenge.

“St. Cloud is just in the middle and I think if we keep on working hard, we can push St. Cloud to the top teams and that’s what I’m looking for,” Alder said. “Hopefully I can be a big part of this development in St. Cloud to get the team closer to the top.”

Story originally published in the November, 2016 issue of our digital magazine. For more stories like this, click HERE to view the November issue and subscribe to have future issues delivered directly to your email inbox. 

The post A Swiss Mystery No More appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

No. 3 Wisconsin swept Minnesota State in WCHA women’s action with a pair of shutout wins at the Verizon Wireless Center, but the intriguing aspect of the series was found on the benches. Minnesota State coach John Harrington and Wisconsin coach Mark Johnson, teammates on Herb Brooks’ gold-medal-winning 1980 “Miracle on Ice” team, went head-to head in a first-of -its-kind matchup. Photographer Jaylynn Nash captured some of the action on and off the ice on Saturday.

[See image gallery at minnesotahockeymag.com]

The post Gallery: Gold Medal Matchup appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

True inspiration is a timeless thing, a very human event.  Technology does not inspire the human soul, though the human soul can — and does — inspire the creation of technology.  This is not a story about technology, but it is a story about timeless inspiration, achieved before the dawn of the “Information Age”.

This is a tale of the inspiration of the human soul, forged by the human soul of one visionary man, who, in turn, inspired the souls of 20 young men who, in turn, inspired the souls of an entire nation (at a time when such inspiration was desperately needed) and continues to inspire us 35 years later (and counting).

Sherman, set the way back machine to 1979, if you please.  Thank you.

1979, the PC is still 2 years away from its invention and far removed from its ubiquity.  In fact, as I write this (the old fashioned way, using pen and paper), the PC, as we knew it, has largely gone the way of the Dodo or the dinosaur marching toward extinction giving way to the now ubiquitous smart phone, by and large more powerful than the PC and fitting easily in the palm of our hand.

It is not the technology that has made the smart phone more powerful than the PC (or the room-sized mainframe computers of 1979), it is the humanity of the smart phone, via its ability to connect people.  Human connection is the power, and it existed long before the technological tools we enjoy and employ today.  Connection. Teamwork. Team. An inspiration that created a “miracle” that inspired because its product was far greater than the mere sum of its individual parts.

The “Miraculous Inspiration” was, and is, the ability to achieve. Not by eradicating individuals in order to form a group entity free of individualism, but by empowering a group of individuals to choose to form a community (a team) by employing their individual talents and inner drive (pronounced “passion”) to set their egos aside in the pursuit of a team goal, having no idea how inspirational it would be for decades to come (if not time immemorial).

In 1979, Herb Brooks (the chief architect of this “Miraculous Inspiration”), without the technology tools of today — PCs, smart phones, and the internet  — spent countless hours researching (the old fashioned way) the personnel he needed to create this community, this team, we look back on in deserving awe.  Coach Brooks probably studied at least 100 players (observing them in person, watching hours of film (yes, film), interviewing their coaches, and so on in order to select the 20 individuals he would be able to inspired to create his “miracle.”

As coach Brooks himself said, he wasn’t looking for “the best” players, he was seeking out “the right ones.”  He knew that he needed true individuals, people secure enough in themselves to be able to “check their egos at the door” and aspire to an ideal greater than themselves … to allow them to be inspired.  The sheer passion, dedication, vision, and inspiration coach Brooks displayed in the research end alone should be an inspiration to us all and not just as hockey fans, players, coaches, and those who champion the sport of hockey.

Coach Brooks then relentlessly pursued this goal (pun fully intended), unwavering in the courage of his convictions, and thereby inspired the USOC to back him (even though there were doubters among the committee members). Most importantly, he inspired 20 young men to accept his challenge, commit to his vision, embrace it as their own and overcome “impossible odds” to construct what we now know as the “Miracle on Ice.”

Those 20 young men — 19 of whom are still with us (minus only the one who wore #20. We miss you, Bob) — were so inspired that they not only shed their egos (not their individuality) at the locker room door. They committed to a practice and conditioning regimen that was virtually, if not totally (outside of the then Soviet Team), unheard of at that time.

From speaking with my (sadly) departed friend, Bob Suter, who lived this, “grueling” is an epic understatement.  Bob and I spoke of his experience on a few rare occasions, as he was incredibly humble and shied away from talking about “the miracle.”  Still, I cannot claim to truly understand the experience as I did not endure it myself.

Talk about commitment and work ethic!!  Those men (coaches, players, support personnel) chose to be inspired by a man who had a vision, a passionate commitment to that vision and, to the best of my knowledge, had no mission in mind to be an inspiration or possess such an inflated ego as to set out to make history.

As I understand it, coach Brooks was more or less awed by the fact that his vision and his boys had such an effect on our entire nation.  To him, it was “a hockey game” (speaking specifically with regard to the legendary Olympic bout with the seemingly inhuman Soviet squad).  It seems those 20 remarkable young men not only shared their coach’s inspiration, they also shared his awe in realizing what an inspiration they had become to their country; that is inspiring, in and of itself.

The aptly dubbed “Miracle on Ice” was ultimately achieved in Lake Placid, New York in February of 1980.  I had just turned 9 years old in late December of 1979.  I grew up in the far west suburbs of Chicago at a time when the Chicago Blackhawks touted the names of Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito, Keith Magnuson, and Stan Mikita on their roster.

As a kid, I did not understand hockey and, as a result, I really had no interest in the game (for which I kick myself in retrospect). Along came the Winter Olympics of 1980 and the infamous “Miracle on Ice.”  At that point in time, I had no idea of who coach Brooks, Bob Suter, Jim Craig and that marvelous group of men that team were, much less what they were all about. Or how they came together, how they forged themselves into the inspirational legend they are and how their example and achievements would inspire me to this very day (along with many of you who are reading this story).

Regardless of my youthful ignorance, and my lack of interest and lack of understanding of hockey (at that point in time), I knew there was something very special about them.  It was when I heard Al Michaels shout his immortal exclamation, “Do you believe in miracles?!?” that I began to take an interest in hockey.  The seeds of MY inspiration had been sewn.

Since that time, my interest in hockey has grown into a love for hockey and that love has developed into an absolute passion for the sport.  I know of no other sport that is so foundationally based, and built, on honor and passion.  To me, hockey is the consummate team sport.  Players that play for their individual stats fade away as quickly as the burst onto the scene and players that place their team first succeed long term and often achieve individual recognition as a result (see Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux as shining examples).

What Coach Brooks, Craig Patrick, their staff and those 20 remarkable young men accomplished, against all odds, was nothing short of inspirational and it continues to inspire decades later, to this very day (and beyond).  Their achievement serves as a beacon to all of us, lighting for us the path to what we can accomplish through belief, commitment, hard work, and the courage to persevere as both individuals and members of a community/team.  I doubt any of those that “authored” the “Miracle On Ice” set out to inspire anyone, but inspire they did and still do over 35 years later.

The “Miracle on Ice” has been inspirational far beyond the game of hockey (and the creation of my passion for hockey individually).  The principles and lessons learned from coach Brooks’ vision, to the tireless work he invested in building his team, to the way he inspired his team, to the team’s hard work and dedication (on and off the ice), to their commitment to each other and the vision of their coach, right down to the invaluable support and sacrifices of the families of those same players and coaches (for all of the years it took to build them into the people they were, and are, on and off the ice), all of those lessons and principles can be applied to our everyday lives as individuals, members of communities (businesses, neighborhoods, social groups, teams, and families), and brothers and sisters of humanity.

The “Miracle on Ice” serves as an inspiration to me each and every day, in good times and challenging times alike.  In good times, I am reminded that there is always more I can do to contribute to my team, whatever that team may be.  In challenging times, I am inspired to keep going and never give up (kind of like the “killers” the boys endured after that pre-Olympic game in Norway).

Sometimes life’s conditioning drills don’t make sense and don’t seem even remotely fair at the time. However, they prepare us for the big game, making us capable of going the distance and having something left in the tank when that third period stares us down across the dot.

If those boys from 1980 could endure the gauntlet they ran to even prepare for that miraculous run for that “unattainable” gold medal, endure the ridicule they received from those that thought they had a hockey rink’s chance in Hades of doing anything more than being fodder and an embarrassment to the nation, and then work that miracle, how can I, how can any of us, ever give up, no matter what we face off against?

That is the essence of “Miraculous Inspiration.” Thanks to all of you who set this example for all of us … shot taken and goal scored.

The post Miraculous Inspiration appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Invalid Displayed Gallery

The post Henry Boucha interview set for Saturday May 24th with Mike Max at 11:05 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

I had an amazing time covering the Olympics for KARE 11 this month. It was VERY busy (hence the lack of articles) but it was a lot of fun. As I sit here on my final night in my hotel room overlooking the beautiful Olympic Park, I realize that something has to change: It’s time to bring amateurs back to the men’s Olympic hockey tournament. Now, you might read that sentence and think I am crazy or you may agree, either way hear me out.

This is not about a lack of effort or caring on the part of NHLers. I very much believe that everyone on Team USA wanted to win a Gold medal. In talking to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter before the games, this was very evident. They were fired up about the 2010 games and in chatting with them before the games here in Sochi, they had a possible rematch with Canada on their mind.

However when they lost to Canada in that rematch of the 2010 Olympic Gold medal game, not everyone was on board for the Bronze medal game against Finland. Instead I think some were already mentally on board their flight for the United States. It didn’t take too many postgame interviews to confirm what we’d already suspected, that not everyone brought their ‘A’ game for this one.

But I can’t really blame there guys. In the NHL it’s a win OR lose mentality. There is no in between. There is no second and third place in the race for the Stanley Cup; you don’t get the Stanley “Mug” or the Stanley “Shot Glass”. These guys are wired to win and that is it. So when they lost the opportunity to win the ultimate prize of the Olympic Games, they gave up. Kind of like what you’d expect a loser’s bracket to look like in the NHL playoffs. Could you see players risking injury for that? I can’t. And that doesn’t mean they don’t have pride in their country, it means they have to think about their day job too.

Speaking of injuries, that was a major issue in these games. New York Islanders star John Tavares is gone for the year after suffering a torn MCL in the game versus Latvia. Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg had to withdraw from the Olympics during the preliminary rounds because of a herniated disc—while it the injury didn’t occur here, playing certainly didn’t make it better.

Imagine that you’re a NHL General Manager and your best players are leaving your team to go play for another one risking injury in a friendly, battle between countries. You be worried about your investment. If you had a Ferrari, would you let the kid down the street drive it up and down the street? NO! Please don’t get me wrong, I love the Olympics they are a time honored tradition in our world where everything else is forgotten for a few weeks and we all get together and play games—it’s fantastic. But if I am a GM of a hockey team and I am seeing other teams star players getting hurt, I’m beginning to get a little nervous that someday it will be my star getting hurt and I am paying A LOT of money for him.

The other thing that convinces me that it’s time, is our extreme interest in all of the other sports that actually use amateur athletes. We fall in love with these Olympic stars. Mainly because we don’t see them play all of the time. They are new and different which we find very cool and intriguing. My good buddy John Shuster, skip of this year’s US Curling team, is like a rock star during February. Why? Because curling is different and for most folks it’s something that they only watch every four years. So when it rolls around, it’s new and fun again. How many guys on the US Olympic hockey team are close personal friends with San Francisco 49er’s Tight End Vernon Davis. My friend Chris Plys (an alternate on the US Men’s Curling team in 2010) is. Because Vernon thinks curling is cool. How many of us cheered and cried with the US Women’s team as their dreams came so close to reality (darn you Canada)? Part of the allure of the Olympics is the fact that these are regular people – who work or go to school every day just like you and me – who have committed themselves to doing extraordinary things and most of them they aren’t millionaires. I think we could have a renewed sense of excitement for the men’s hockey team if we were watching the future of the NHL rather than the current players.

Which leads perfectly into my last point. It would be a chance to see some of the up and coming stars in hockey. I remember watching guys like Brian Rolston, Darby Hendrickson and Peter Laviolette in the 1994 games knowing that they would go on to NHL careers. It was exciting to see guys show their skills before they got to the big show. That was part of the fun.

I am not against NHL players being in the Olympics, but I do think (now more than ever) that there are viable reasons why it could be time to usher in a new (and subsequently old) era in Olympic men’s hockey. I believe it will be just as much fun to watch and maybe even increase of chances of winning the country’s first gold in over 30 years.

The post Time for NHL Olympians To Go? appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured Image:
Noora Räty
(Photo/University of Minnesota Athletics)

By Mollyhall Seeley
The Pink Puck

Vinny Prospal retired late last month. He had played 16 seasons in the NHL, jumping Jagr-like from team to team, first with the Philadelphia Flyers and eventually the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was born in 1975–a good year for hockey, and for the Flyers in particular, who made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. They were turned away by the Montreal Canadiens, but Reggie Leach won playoff MVP. The Habs’ Guy Lafleur was the season’s top scorer but the Flyers’ Bobby Clarke won season MVP.  Mel Bridgman made his NHL debut after being selected first overall, and fourteen seasons later he retired. In 1992, he was was named the first General Manager of the Ottawa Senators, for whom Prospal played from 1998-2001.

By the time he announced his retirement, Vinny Prospal had skated on a lot of different ice and called a lot of different rinks “home.” He had been to Turin and taken home a bronze medal. He had played 1,108 games in the league, all told. He is 38.

Noora Räty is 24. She played 139 games for the Minnesota Gophers and won 122 of them, including a perfect season in 2012-13, where she recorded 17 shutouts and a .95 save percentage. In a 38-game season, Räty let in a mere 36 goals, giving her a 0.96% GAA. She made the Finnish National team at age 15 and helped them win bronze at 21, making 16 saves for a win over Sweden. She won the IIHF World Women’s Championships Best Goalie in 2007 and 2008 and MVP in 2008 (Hayley Wickenheiser, current captain of Team Canada and flag-bearer at Sochi’s Opening Ceremonies, won the year before).

She has 41 career shutouts in the NCAA–a Division I record. Earlier this year, The Hockey News ranked her as one of their People of Power (at #63). They wrote, “Räty ha[s] the ability to be the tournament [in Sochi]’s most influential player. She [is] the person capable of derailing a juggernaut almost singlehandedly.”

It’s not speculation. Räty shut out Team USA–who has never left the World Championships without a gold or silver medal–in the 2008 World Championships with 30 saves. Räty’s shutout came the same year that the American team beat the Canadians for just the second time in 11 matches; in other words, an already-juggernaut team at their absolute strongest.

“As long as I get a shutout, we can’t lose,” Räty told the Minnesota Daily last March.

Noora Räty is among the best goalies in the world, male and female. She is 24.

She is retiring.

—

This is Noora Räty:

[youtube id=”qcBGbvJtcwY” width=”620″ height=”360″]

What’s remarkable about this save isn’t that Räty didn’t fall for the deke; it’s that she did. You can see her glove hand going up, reaching for a puck that isn’t coming. It’s like she’s isolated her different muscles, like each of them can react independently to one another. Räty’s glove hand is falling for the deke while her leg knows better. She makes two saves at the same time.

A goalie like that would go first round in the NHL draft, if she were lucky enough to have been born with a Y chromosome. A goalie ready for the international stage at 15, who can be fooled and unfooled at the same time, a goalie who can carry her team in her glove, would barely languish at all in the AHL. A goalie like that would be hailed as the next Ken Dryden, the next Patrick Roy, the next Martin Brodeur.

Brodeur, by the way, is 41. He has played 21 seasons with the New Jersey Devils. Roy retired after 18 years in the NHL, first with the Canadiens and then the Avalanche (for whom he is now coach and Vice President of Hockey Operations). Dryden played just seven seasons with the Habs, retiring at 31. The decision to retire was his own; he was ready for different things. His life as a hockey player had run its course.

Compare that to Räty, whose announcement on Twitter today told a different story:

…As much as I would love to just play the game I love and that has given me so much, I have to choose a work career (unless I can make a living from playing). Why? Because who would then pay my rent, car loan and insurance, and other bills? I’m 24-years-old, out of college, single, and the money doesn’t grow in [sic] trees so yes you are right, the answer is no one. I’m done living from hand to mouth and now it’s time to start building wealth and think[ing] about my future. And I’m not the only player having this problem… the majority of female players have the same problem.

Noora Räty is not retiring because she is finished with hockey; she is retiring because there is nowhere for her to go. I wrote earlier this week in “Women’s Olympic Hockey: Why Gold Matters” about how limited a woman’s hockey options are, the farther along she gets in her career. Despite being one of the fastest growing women’s sports in the world, when it comes to making a living, even the most extraordinary players are brought up short.

The Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), full of talent and empty of funds, cannot pay its players. Russia has an 11-team professional woman’s league, but the league suffers from the same curse that plagues the CWHL–the same plague that follows women’s hockey (and women’s sports) everywhere: underfunding, underexposure, and a near-total lack of engagement outside of Olympic years.

Throw a stone in most places and you’ll hit five separate hockey programs for little boys; throw a boulder and you’ll still miss the single female hockey program as it rounds a corner. A 2009 study of coverage by gender in ESPN The Magazine published in the International Journal of Sport Management found that:

• for 1,425 feature articles which pertained to men’s sports, only 50 pertained to women (and only 48 pertained to both)–which means that men received 96.6% percent of the coverage, and women a mere 3.3%
• of the articles devoted to women, 90.0% of them were relegated to the back half of the magazine; only 58.8% of articles about men received the same treatment
• 94.7% of “special photographs” (i.e. covers and “Zoom” section photographs) were exclusively dedicated to male sports, and only 5.3%  to women’s sports.

“But wait!” you say. It’s not ESPN The Magazine‘s fault that not as many people watch women’s hockey. It’s not the media’s fault that audiences will watch 4,000 replays of TJ Oshie vs. Russia in the shootout but aren’t sure how to spell “Wickenheiser.” Can we really blame ESPN The Magazine for catering to its readership?

The problem is that readership is as much dependent on content as it is determined by content. Maybe most women don’t spend a lot of time reading ESPN The Magazine,  but why should they? People like them aren’t in it. A woman sports fan has to read 1,375 articles to find a story about someone whose gender identity matches hers. Writing for dudes about dudes creates a feedback loop that doesn’t allow for growth in either direction. As the same study points out, “the media are seen as influencing people’s leisure choices because of their ability to cultivate images and perceptions of what’s popular and attractive … for those sports that are under-represented, awareness and efforts to build fan bases are often much more difficult.”

Getting fans there is half the battle. Once they’re in the building, they’ll bring their wallets, they’ll buy beer and t-shirts and season tickets. They’ll grow loyalties and cultivate favorites; they’ll spend hours on the pond with their daughters talking about the game they saw when they were younger– “Oh man, honey, you should have seen it–Wick with the puck and Räty in goal, I swear the whole stadium stopped breathing…”

In other words: if you build it, they will come.

—

There’s a caveat in this story, which is that Noora Räty is not actually retiring from hockey.

She is retiring from women’s hockey.

I will hang up my skates for good if I can’t play professional hockey IN A COMPETITIVE LEAGUE next season. I said competitive league because I could always go play in the Russian women’s league … [however, after] playing a few games there myself in January, I don’t think this league will challenge me enough[…] But I play hockey because I love to get challenged as it drives me to get better as an athlete and goalie.  Thus, I would love to take on the challenge and try playing with men since I can’t play college hockey anymore and there’s no professional league [that pays its players] in North America. But I guess time will show if some men’s pro team is willing to give me a chance.

Räty wouldn’t be the first female player to play on a team with the boys; Manon Rhéaume was the first women to play in an NHL game (for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992) and Hayley Wickenheiser played on both Finnish and Swedish men’s teams (she also turned down an offer from Phil Esposito to play for the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL). Hilary Knight, in an interview after the USA/Canada game on Wednesday, talked about going to Sweden to play in the men’s league over there. When asked whether she wanted to play with the boys, Knight grinned big and said, “Oh, yeah.”

The problem with this joke by the LA Kings’ twitter is not that it is at the USA Women’s Olympic Hockey Team’s expense; it isn’t. It’s at the LA Kings’ expense. The problem with this joke isn’t that women couldn’t hack it in the NHL; in my opinion, many of them could, if they wanted to. The problem with this joke isn’t even that it isn’t funny, because at least 1,598 people found it so.

The problem with this joke is that not a single player on the USA Women’s Olympic Hockey Team has a chance to make even the NHL’s minimum salary of $525,000 playing their sport and doing it better than many of their male counterparts.

The problem with this joke is that Noora Räty has to retire so that she can pay her car loans.

Gender integration isn’t something that has ever made it too high up on the NHL’s To Do List. They are more worried about whether players should be allowed to tuck their shirts in, and trying to figure out what arbitrary line in the sand would mark the difference between Just Part of the Game Violence and We Are About To Get Super Duper Sued Violence. Technically, there is nothing stopping women from playing in the NHL, except that they are rarely given the chance.

Women’s hockey has peculiar pressure points. Checking isn’t allowed, technically, but it still happens; the match-up between the USA and Canada on the 12th proved that. Still, there are no Broad Street Bullies, no Big Bad Bruins. There is no such thing as an enforcer, or at least, not in the way that the NHL understands the term. You can’t make a living off your fists in women’s hockey because you can’t use your fists. Even players whose main job is to play the enforcer-type role has to be able to contribute at the technical level. (Also, of course, you can’t make a living in women’s hockey at all.)

The game has evolved to put high focus on stick-work and skill. Essentially every player on the team has to be able to perform the kind of puck-handling madness that players like Patrick Kane and Sidney Crosby do in the NHL. That’s not because women can’t fight, or learn the right way to absorb a hit; it’s because that element was taken out of their league’s game, and they had to compensate.

(Well. For the most part.

[youtube id=”gGiKEv4ETjg” width=”620″ height=”360″]

They’re only human, after all.)

Of course, gender integration of the NHL is not the answer to the problems of the CWHL–or women’s hockey in general. As Brenda Andress, Executive Director for the CWHL, told the Toronto Star, “We’re not the NHL and we’re never going to be, nor should we be, we have a very different game.” Räty herself doesn’t even call for it; instead, she writes that she believes the best hope for the future of women’s hockey is to build up the North American women’s leagues to a competitive level. Women’s hockey–women’s sports–already have the players. They have the heart and the hands and the heads.

Someone just has to build the stadiums up around them.

About the Author:

To learn more about Mollyhall Seeley and read more of her work, visit her bio page at ThePinkPuck.com/author/mollyhall/

The post Commentary: What Noora Räty’s Retirement Says About Women’s Hockey appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

First of all Sochi, Russia is a beautiful place. Please don’t listen to the few loud voices that are trying to downplay this city. Is it messy in spots? Yes. Are there parts of the city that you don’t want to be in at night? Sure. However, that also sounds to me like many cities in America.

I have taken away a few indisputable facts:

1-The Russian people are incredibly proud of their Olympics here. We talked to a college student who was volunteering in the Moscow airport because even though he couldn’t go to Sochi, he wanted to be a part of the games somehow. And helping media members through the airport was his way pitching in.

On my way up to the Mountain Cluster we spoke with a young man who was working security who wanted to make sure that we were enjoying our stay. The point is, Russians are inherently aware that this Olympics will make or break how they are viewed by the world in the immediate future and they are taking it very seriously.

2- The weather is AMAZING. Please stop complaining that this is not a place for the Winter Games. Yes there are palm trees, green grass and an ocean. Who cares! The venues are gorgeous, they are close and it has been very easy to maneuver around the park.

3- These games are a serious one for both men’s and women’s hockey teams. Talking with members of the men’s team here, while they are having fun, they mean business. They have not forgotten about 2010 (mainly because people refuse to let them) and they are not afraid of playing the Russians on their home turf.

My experience has been amazing and humbling. I’ve never watched Olympic hockey with international fans before and the amount of country pride they feel and let show is fun. But one thing is clear: Americans are outnumbered. Team USA’s first game was in the women’s arena while Russia played in the main (Bolshoy) arena. Alex Ovechkin is on every soda machine in the park and people are already started to buzz about Russia’s chances to win a medal. This is Russia’s home turf and we are just visiting.

But what a visit it has been so far. I have been here for 13 days. Every one of them I have enjoyed and everyone I have felt safe. The biggest challenge so far has been overcoming the language barrier (you can only imagine how to ask “where is the bathroom” without being able to use words – it’s like ‘PG-13’ rated charades).

That aside, I am so looking forward to my final eight days here in Sochi. Especially with the hockey tournament about to heat up.

And if there is one other thing I have learned at the Winter Olympics, it’s that any sport gives anyone a great chance to win.

The post Olympic Flame over Olympic Blame appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

I am about to embark on the greatest sports adventure of my career, heck my life.

Featured Image:
The Bolshoy Ice Dome will serve as the primary hockey venue for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

On Feb. 1, I will have the privilege of going to Sochi, Russia to cover the 2014 Winter Olympic Games for my employer, KARE11-TV. I will be covering a lot of sports, visiting with a lot of people (Minnesotans and others) and hopefully giving people a taste of what it’s like to be there. I will also be chronicling my journey here with Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

I have done a lot of thinking in the past six months, from the time I first was asked to go. A decision I had initially pondered turning down. I mean, who would want to go half way around the world and experience something as amazing as the Olympic Games? Believe it or not the idea of being away from my wife and kids was almost more than I could bear. Until that same wife told me that I’d be a fool to turn down this opportunity. Especially considering my affinity for hockey and the connections which I have in the hockey community. Boy am I glad that she talked me into it.

My entire career has been working up to this point. In a way, I can understand how some of the athletes feel as they prepare to go. No, I have not dedicated myself physically as they have (there is plenty of photographic evidence of this) but I have dedicated myself to my craft and my job and this will clearly be the highest point, to date.

Part of my preparation for my trip has been doing stories on the athletes and players that will take part in the Games. In talking with NHLer’s I was surprised to see just how much this meant to them. For the NHL guys, they make a darn good living playing in the league and put everything on the line to reach that ultimate goal of the Stanley Cup. But the message I kept hearing over and over again, was just how special it is to wear the Team USA colors. That, even though it’s just a friendly tournament, in which they do NOT get paid extra, and that by playing in it they risk an injury that could affect their NHL career, the Olympics is still an honor to beat all honors.

In a conversation I had with Zach Parise just a few weeks ago, he joked that if he and teammate Mikko Koivu were going for the puck along the boards he’d throw a check and try to get him off of it. And that he’d expect Koivu to do the exact same thing. The alliances that they have with each other in the Wild locker room don’t mean anything over there. All that matters is the country on the front of their jersey, not the name on the back.

On the women’s side, because there is no women’s version of the NHL, the Olympics are the pinnacle of their sport. Talk with any member of Team USA for two minutes and you’ll see this. In conversations with some of the players they oozed pride for their country, talking about how much of an honor it is to play for Team USA and the respect they have been getting from friends, family and even strangers when they find out they’ll be on the ice in Sochi.

My assignment over the past few months has been to catch up with Minnesota athletes who are preparing for the Olympic Games, so naturally I’ve been talking a lot of hockey players. The Team USA rosters are packed with Minnesotans or players with Minnesota ties, 15 total (10 men, 5 women) more than any other state in the union.

I have found out that saying that Minnesota is simply “good at hockey” is an understatement. Instead of the land of “10 thousand lakes”, Minnesota should be called the land of “10 thousand skates”. It’s no coincidence that kids that grow up on the pond playing hockey turn into Olympians. Playing for the love of the game, whether it’s on the pond for bragging rights, or for world bragging rights, always means a lot. As Gigi Marvin reminisced about her beloved town of Warroad, MN to me she told me a story about a normal Sunday night at 10:30pm. An arena sheet was completely empty accept for a father and his sons having a shootout competition. Marvin, while grinning ear to ear, said that’s just how they do things in Warroad and she’s right. Marvin refers to Warroad as “Hockey Town USA”, but in actuality it’s our entire state that’s become USA Hockey.

February certainly promises to be a memorable experience for all of us. I’m not sure if the men’s and women’s team can take home the gold. I can tell you that they will fight for it as hard as any other country, which is what makes the Olympics great. And I am honored to be able to be on the front lines in 2014.

The post Schwartz: The Trip of a Lifetime appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.